The horizontal line represents the person’s life.1666 - born1705 - “Reflections”1694 - “Reflections”1701 - “Examination of Dr. Woodward’s Account of the Deluge”1714 - “Thesaurus”; “A Vindication of the Earl of Nottingham”1723 - “Elogia Gallorum”1713 - “Observations on the State of
the Nation”1714 - “Thesaurus”; “A Vindication of the Earl of Nottingham”1726 - died

Wotton, William

, an English divine of uncommon
parts and learning, was the son of Mr. Henry Wotton,
rector of Wrentham, in Suffolk, a man of considerable
learning also, and well skilled in the Oriental tongues. He
was born at Wrentham the 13th of August, 1666, and was
educated by his father. He discovered a most extraordinary genius for learning languages; and, though what is
related of him upon this head may appear wonderful, yet
it is so well attested that we know not how to refuse it
credit. Sir Philip Skippon, who lived at Wrentham, in a
letter to Mr. John Ray, Sept. Is, 1671, writes thus of him:
“I shall somewhat surprise you with what I have seen in a
little boy, William Wotton, five years old the last month,
the son of Mr. Wotton, minister of this parish, who hath
instructed his child within the last three quarters of a year
injhe reading the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew languages,
which he can read almost as well as English; and that
tongue he could read at four years and three months old
as well as most lads of twice his age. I could send you
many particulars about his rendering chapters and psalms
out of the three learned languages into English,*’ &c.
Among sir Philip’s papers was found a draught of a longer
letter to Mr. Ray, in which these farther particulars are
added to the above:” He is not yet able to parse any
language, but what he performs in turning the three
learned tongues into English is done by strength of memory; so that he is ready to mistake when some words of
different signification have near the same sound. His father
hath taught him by no rules, but only uses the child’s memory in remembering words: some other children of his
age seem to have as good a fancy and as quick apprehension.“He was admitted of Catharine Hall, Cambridge, in
April 1676, some months before he was ten years old; and
upon his admission Dr. John Eachard, then master of the
college, gave him this remarkable testimony: Gulidmns
Wottonus infra decem annos nee Ilammondo nee Grotio secundus. His progress in learning was answerable to the expectations conceived of him; and Dr. Duport, the master
of Magdalen-college, and dean of Peterborough, has
|
described itin an elegant copy of verses;” In Gulielmum
Wottanum stupendi ingenii et incomparabilis spei puerum
vixdum duodecim annorum." He then goes on to celebrate his skill in the languages, not only in the Greek and
Latin, which he understood perfectly, but also in the Hebrew, Arabic, Syriac, Chaldee; his skill too in arts and
sciences, in geography, logic, philosophy, mathematics^
chronology.

In 1679 he took the degree of B. A. when he was but
twelve years and five months old; and, the winter following, was invited to London by Dr. Gilbert Burner, then
preacher at the Rolls, who introduced him to almost all the
learned; and among the rest to Dr. William Llovd, bishopi
of St. Asaph, who was so highly pleased with him, that he
took him a an assistant in making the catalogue of his library, and carried him the summer following to St. Asaph.
Upon his return, Dr. Turner, afterwards bishop of Ely^
procured him by his interest a fellowship in St. John’s colege, where he took his degree of ML A. in 1683, and iri
1691 he commenced bachelor of divinity. The same year
bishop Lloyd gave him the sinecure of LlandriUo, in Denbighshire. He was afterwards made chaplain to the earl of
Nottingham, then secretary of state, who in 1693 presented
him to the rectory of Middleton Keynes, in Buckinghamshire. In 1694- he published “Reflections upon Ancient
and modern Learning” and dedicated his book to his patron the earl of Nottingham^ To settle the bounds of all
branches of literature, and all arts and sciences, as they
have been extended by both ancients and moderns, and
thus to make a comparison between each, was a work too
vast, one should think, for any one man, even for a whole
life spent in study; yet it was executed with very considerable ability by Mr. Wotton at twenty-eight years of
age; and if it did involve him somewhat in the controversy
between Boyle and Bentley, that was rather owing to his
connections with Bentley, whose “Dissertations upon Phalaris,” &c. were printed at the end of the 2d edition of his
book in 1697, than to any intermeddling of his own. Boyle
himself acknowledged that “Mr. Wotton is modest and
decent, speaks generally with respect of those he differs
from, and with a due distrust of his own opinion. His
book has a vein of learning running through it, where there
is no ostentation of it.” This and much more is true of
Wotton’s performance yet it must not be dissembled,
| that this,as it stands in Boyle’s hook, appears to have
been said rather for the sake of reflecting on Bentley than
to commend Wotton. Wotton suffered, as is well known,
under the satirical pen of Swift; and this induced him to
write “A Defence of the Reflections upon Ancient and
Modern Learning, in answer to the objections of sir William Temple and others;” with “Observations upon the
Tale of a Tub;” reprinted with a third corrected edition of
the “Reflections,” &c. in 1705, 8vo. He says that this
“Tale is of a very irreligious nature, and a crude banter
upon all that is esteemed as sacred among all sects and
religions among men;” and his judgment of that famous
piece is confirmed by that of Mr. Moyle, in the following
passage: “I have read over the * Tale of a Tub.’ There
is a good deal of wild wit in it, which pleases by its extravagance and uncommonness; but I think it, upon the
whole, the profanest piece of ribaldry which has appeared
since the days of Rabelais, the great original of banter and
ridicule.”

His “Reflections” were published, as already noticed,
in 1694. In 1695 he published, in the “Philosophical
Transactions,” an “Abstract” of Agostino Scilla’s book
concerning marine bodies which are found petrified in several places at land; and in 1697, a “Vindication” of that
abstract, which was subjoined to Dr. John Arbuthnot’s
“Examination of Dr. Woodward’s Account of the Deluge,”
&c. In 1701, he published “The History of Rome from
the death of AntoninusPius to the death of Severus Alexander,” in 8vo. He paid great deference to the authority
of medals in illustrating this history, and prefixed several
tables of them to his book, taken chiefly from the collections of Angeloni, Morell, and Vailiant. This work was
undertaken at the direction of bishop Burnet, and intended
for the use of his lordship’s royal pupil, the duke of Gloucester, who, however, did not live to see it finished. It
was therefore dedicated to the bishop, to whom Wotton
had been greatly obliged in his youth, and who afterwards,
in 1705, gave him a prebend in the church of Salisbury.
This history was esteemed no inconsiderable performance:
M. Leibnitz immediately recommended it to George II. his
late majesty, then electoral prince of Hanover; and it was
the first piece of Roman history which he read in our
language.

In 1706 Wotton preached a visitation- sermon, at
|
Newport-Pagnel in Bucks, against Tindal’s bookof “The Rights
of the Christian Church,” and printed it. This was the
first answer that was written to that memorable performance; and it was also the first piece which Wotton published
as a divine. In 1707, archbishop Tenison presented him
with the degree of doctor of divinity. In 1708 he drew
up a short view of Dr. Hickes’s “Thesaurus;” but the appendix and notes are Hickes’s own. In 1714 the difficulties he was under in his private fortune, for he had not a
grain of ceconomy, obliged him to retire into South Wales,
where, though he had much leisure, he had few books.
Yet, being too active in his nature to be idle, he drew up,
at the request of Browne Willis, esq v who afterwards published them, the “Memoirs of the Cathedral Churqh of St.
David/‘ in 1717, and of” Landaff“in 1719. Here he
also wrote his” Miscellaneous discourses relating to the
traditions and usages of the Scribes and Pharisees,“&c.
which was printed 1718, in 2 vols. 8vo. Le Clerc tells us
that” great advantage may be made by reading the writings of the Rabbins; and that the public is highly obliged
to Mr. Selden, for instance, and to Dr. Lightfoot, for the
assistances which they have drawn thence, and communicated to those who study the holy scripture. Those who
do not read their works, which are not adapted to the capacity of every person, will be greatly obliged to Dr. Wotton for the introduction which he has given them into that
kind of learning." In 1719 he published a sermon upon
Mark xiii. 32, to prove the divinity of the Son of God from
his omniscience.

After his return from Wales he preached a sermon in
Welsh before the British Society in 1722; and was, perhaps, the only Englishman who ever attempted to preach
in that language. The same year, his account of the life and
writings of Mr. Thomas Stanley was published at Eysenach,
at the end of Scaevola Sammartbanus’s “Elogia Gallorum.”
In 1723 he printed in the “Bibliotheca Literaria” an account
of the “Caernarvon Record, 7 ’ a manuscript in the Harleian
library. This manuscript is an account of several ancient
Welsh tenures, and had some relation to the Welsh laws,
which he was busy in translating. He undertook that laborious work at the instance of Wake, who knew that the
trouble of learning a new and very difficult language would
be no discouragemen t to Dr. Wotton. It was published in
1730, under this title,” Cysreithjeu Hywel Dda, ac erail;
| ceu, Leges Wallicae Ecclesiasticae et Civiles Hoeli Boni,
et aliorum Walliae princjpum, quas ex variis Codicibus
Manuscriptis eruit, interpretatione Latina, notis et glossario illustravit Gulielmus Wottonus,“in foijo. But this way
a posthumous work, for he died at Buxted, in Essex, Feb.
13,1726. He left a daughter, who was the wife of the
late Mr. William Clarke, canon-residentiary of Chichester.
After his death came out his” Discourse concerning the
Confusion of Languages at Babel,“1730, 8vo; as did the
same year his” Advice to a young Student, with a method
of study. for the four first years.“He was likewise the author of five anonymous pamphlets: 1.” A Letter to Eusebia,“1707. 2.” The case of the present Convocation
considered,“1711. 3.” Reflections on the present posture of Affairs, 1712. 4. “Observations on the State of
the Nation,” 1713. 5. “A Vindication of the Earl of Nottingham,” 1714.

What distinguished him from other men chiefly was his
memory: his superiority seems to have lain in the strength
pf that faculty; for, by never forgetting any thing, he
became immensely learned and knowing; and, what is
more, his learning (as one expresses it) was all in ready
cash, which he was able to produce at sight. When he
was very young he remembered the whole of- almost any
discourse he had heard, and often surprised a preacher
with repeating his sermon to him. This first recommended
him to bishop Lloyd, to whom he repeated one of his own
sermons, as Dr. Burnet had engaged that he should. But
above all, he had great humanity and friendliness of temper. His time and abilities were at the service of any person who was making advances in real learning. The narrowness of a party-spirit never broke in upon any of his
friendships; he was as zealous in recommending Dr. Hickes’s
great work as if it had been his own-, and assisted Mr.
Spinkes in his replies to Mr. Collier in the controversy
about the necessity of mixing wine and water in the sacrament, in 1718 and 1719. He was a great lover of etymology; and 'Mr. Thwaites in his Saxon Grammar, takes
notice of his skill and acuteness that way, which he was
extremely well qualified for, by knowing most of the languages from east to west. Mr. John Chapman, chaplain
to the archbishop of Canterbury (in “Remarks upon the Letter to Dr. Waterland in relation to the natural account of Languages,” pag. 8, 9.) has done him the honour to
| place him in a list of great names after Bochart, Walton,
Vossius, Scaliger, Duret, Heinsius, Selclen, &c. all men
of letters and tracers of languages. Wotton lived at a time
when a man of learning would have been better preferred
than he was; but it is supposed that some part of his conduct, which was very exceptionable, prevented it. 1

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